Model: Kuat Alpha Rack
MSRP: $329
Weight: 15 lbs.
Manufacturer Link: https://www.kuatinnovations.com/

Kuat is is a refreshing name from a company with new ideas about bike racks. Notice that in the specs above, I mentioned that the rack weight is 15 pounds. Why should we care what a bike rack weighs? Well sit back and listen to my story.

I've always thought that tray racks are the best. These are the hitch racks where the wheels sit on two trays. This allows the user to just place the bike into the tray, drop a clamp that presses on to the tires and voila, all done. Sportworks (now part of Thule) revolutionized this segment with their racks derived from public transit models.

So I have a couple of these tray racks. They are big, heavy and sturdy. I like them and I put on the family minivan for the bike excursions. Well, I found a couple of serious problems. The first is it's always in the way. It's in the way when it's down, it's in the way when it's up. The kids trip over it and I can't access my stuff in the back of the van easily. So when we're not using it, we take it off the van. Herein lies the second problem. It's kind of heavy at 35 pounds! My wife can't muscle it around so I'm always called in to take it off. Take it off, put it on. After a while I decided to look into those 'other' type of racks.

The good news is a company called Kuat has recognized my problem and tried to address it with a quality bike rack. This is a 'hanging' type of rack where the bike hangs on the rack by its top tube. Normally, these racks are good for recreational riders and the normal weaknesses are:
  • it cannot accomodate full suspension bikes or kids' bikes with a small front triangle
  • bikes get scratched and hit each other
  • bikes are not secure and move around a lot
  • mounting the bike takes more time
But, I saw the video below and noticed it was 15 lbs and I decided to give it a try.

Ok, the review already
So I've been using the rack for about a month and I am extremely pleased. This rack solves most of the problems I stated above. It's not as quick-mounting or as accomodating as a tray rack but it is easier to live with on a day to day basis.

(continued...)

So the two bars that go into the front triangle of the bike are closely spaced together. This allows it to accomodate kids bikes and full suspension bikes. The other design feature is the rubber mounts where the top tube sits are triangle-shaped and rotate freely. This allows the user to fit the bike in and then adjust the mounts to give it maximum contact point with the top tube of the bike. And finally, there are two straps per mount. Ideally, one goes on the top tube and the other to the seat tube of the bicycle frame. The seat tube strap stabilizes the forward and backward movement of the bike while the car is in motion.

Does it accomodate all bikes? Well, in my experience, road bikes are not a problem at all. Kids bikes and hardtails are ok although if they have an extremely sloped top tube, the bike rests at an angle. The key issue is with full suspension bikes with a small front triangle. I've mounted a small Trek Remedy, Niner Jet 9 and Fuji Reveal. It's a tight fit but it goes in. On the Fuji, I had to take the waterbottle cage off. The Santa Cruz Nomad would not mount. In cases like this, a frame adapter bar is needed. This is a bar that attaches to the seatpost and the handlebars.

Are bikes as easy to mount as with tray racks? Well no, tray racks are definitely the speed kings but the Kuat is simple enough and the bikes are held securely. The four rubber straps per bike are easy enough to handle and they allow for several mounting options.
Innovation?
The great news about the Kuat Alpha is the designers were able to incorporate several design features that make this type of rack more attractive. Here's a few:
  • All aluminum construction makes this rack light at 15 pounds. Putting the rack on and off the car is now easy.
  • The rack packs really small so storing it is easy.
  • There is a cam system on the hitch mount that removes all play. Most hitch interfaces have a wobble. The Kuat has knob on the main tube that you turn to expand a cam on the receiver hitch.
  • There are two other anti wobble knobs on the rack to remove all play on the pivoting sections of the rack
  • Built in lock included. The lock is minimalist but it's always there and it only locks the last bike since the other bikes can't go anywhere with the last bike blocking them.
Weaknesses?
The only weakness we've found so far is the rack hangs low on the receiver hitch. There's no bend to the lower bar to raise the rackand there is a hinge mechanism that sits an inch below the rack. It seems to bottom out on high driveways on our Honda Minivan.
Also the Kuat Alpha is not a cheap rack at $329 but there is the Kuat Beta rack with less features available at $225.
Bottom Line:
So there we have it. We believe it's a fresh approach to quality bike racks and we believe Kuat deserves praise for their efforts.

Value Rating:

4.5 out of 5 Stars


Overall Rating:

4.5 out of 5 Stars


Here is the lively manufacturer produced video of the Kuat Rack. It's pretty cool since it shows energy of the two founders. At the 36 second mark, he catches the rack thrown at him Wow!


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